


Of Flour Sacks and Women

by hellfroze



Series: Gal Pals [2]
Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Flour Sack Baby, i just threw up typing that jess/mike tag, these girls are too good for mike..., this is after the em/mike split btw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 12:33:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8489809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellfroze/pseuds/hellfroze
Summary: Emily and Jess practically became enemies when Mike dumped her for Jess, and now they're stuck raising a baby together. (Or, the high-school-Jemily AU that nobody asked for.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> originally this was gonna be a oneshot but it turned out too long so now it's gonna have chapters i guess..

“Everyone find your seats and sit in them,” said Mr. Smith.

 

Most everyone from their becomingly estranged friend group was in the same homeroom — Matt, Hannah, and Josh were the only ones not in the same health class period. The health teacher had made a new seating chart at the start of the semester; Emily sat in the middle of the second row, Mike sat two chairs to her left, and Jessica sat directly behind her. Emily had asked Mr. Smith for a different seat, one that was literally anywhere else in the classroom, but he refused (“Sometimes you have to work with people you don’t like, Emily. It’s part of your transition into the real world”). His use of the term “real world” had irked her; she faced real world problems every single day of her life.

 

It was cruel, Emily thought, that the health teacher made her listen to Jessica and Mike’s constant whispering and flirting. She knew that Jessica would whisper suggestive things to Mike especially loudly, to make sure Emily heard. The whole thing distracted her from her schoolwork, which Emily thought should have been reason enough to get a new seat. Emily didn’t know if the universe hated her or if there was some really bad thing she did in a past life because she’d asked Mr. Smith for a seat change three times, and three times Mr. Smith had shot her down by spewing the same thing about Growing Up and the Real World.

 

“Today,” Mr. Smith said once the chatter had quieted, “you all will begin a new project. Take out the packets you received last Friday.”

 

Emily had already taken the packet out. She also had already read through it twice over. The first few pages were about teen pregnancy and how it was the number-one cause of high school dropouts, and the rest of it was about the Flour Sack Baby Project and its objective, instructions, log book, rubric, et cetera.

 

“By a show of hands, how many of you read the material over the weekend?” asked Mr. Smith. A little bit less than half the class, mostly people within the front two rows, raised their hands. Mr. Smith glanced at his watch. “You have five minutes to read through the important parts.”

 

“Mike, did you read it?” came Jessica’s whispering.

 

“Yeah,” Mike said, his voice slightly more hushed that Jessica’s.

 

Emily rolled her eyes, straightened her posture, and let out an exaggeratedly loud sigh.

 

“Can you tell me what it said?” she asked. “I don’t have my thing.”

 

“Yeah—”

 

“Oh my god, would you two shut up?” Emily said, her voice nowhere near a whisper.

 

Mr. Smith cleared his throat. “Emily, quiet,” he said. “The slackers are trying to read.”

 

Emily huffed and crossed her arms. She heard Jessica snicker behind her.

 

After the five minutes had passed, Mr. Smith tapped his watch. “Alright, time’s up. As you should all know by now, this is the famed flour sack baby project. It counts for twenty-five percent of your grade,” he said. “In pairs of two, you will get one flour sack, or if you draw twins, you’ll get two.”

 

Out of the corner of her eye, Emily saw Mike’s head turn towards Jess.

 

“You will treat the flour sacks like they were your babies,” said Mr. Smith. “Your packets have more in-depth instructions on that front. Once you’re in pairs and have your flour babies, we’ll start the first part of the project.”

 

“Can I be a single parent?” Emily asked. She didn’t want to jeopardize her grade because she got paired with someone careless. And it wasn’t like she needed the experience of raising a baby with a guy — she was already turned off of the idea of having a baby. Ever. Emily was in no way interested in having a screaming money drain that vomits and craps all over the place. This project would only further her distaste for having a baby of her own, especially during her adult life.

 

The health teacher shook his head. “There’s an even number of students in this class. You’ll be paired with someone.” He looked at the rest of the class. “You don’t get to choose your partners,” he said, granting a collective groan from the students. “I already have a list made of who’s working with who.”

 

Mr. Smith read the list. Chris paired with Ashley, who both looked away and flushed as red as a tomato. After a few more students were partnered up, the health teacher got to Sam. He said a short spiel about how his classroom is a progressive one, and paired her with Beth. The two had been dating for two years and everyone knew it, including the health teacher; though Emily didn’t really care who everyone else was being partnered with, it was good that Sam and Beth weren’t stuck with a guy because of the general heteronormativity present in schools and work and everywhere in between.

 

Emily made sure not to show it, but she had a sinking feeling in her stomach at the thought of getting stuck with Mike. She wouldn’t put it past Mr. Smith to pull something like that because she’d come to expect his passive-aggressive ways of torturing her in his class. But when he said Mike was grouped with some girl named Sarah, her body relaxed. Emily half-smirked at hearing Jessica make a scoffing noise behind her.

 

When there were just six or so students left, Mr. Smith said, “Because this class has more guys than girls, the rest of you will be paired with a member of the same sex.”

 

Emily looked around. The only girl who hadn’t been partnered up yet was Jessica. Her mouth opened, ready to object, but Jessica beat her to the punch.

 

“Are you kidding?” Jess squealed sharply. “I can’t work with her! I’m not even— I’m not even gay, Mr. Smith. This is— You’re erasing my sexuality, is what you’re doing.”

 

If they had been given this project during the previous school year, Emily would have been joyed to raise a flour sack with Jessica. But now, with things being the way they were, she would rather have her eyes poked out than have Jessica potentially fail the project for her.

 

“Now, Jessica, I’ve said this to Emily before: you have to work with people you may find difficult—”

 

“ _ I’m _ the difficult one?” Emily said, stifling another scoff. “Have you even  _ met _ Jessica?”

 

Jess stamped her foot underneath her desk. “This is so unfair! There are  _ four guys left. _ You’re oppressing me, Mr. Smith.”

 

The health teacher rubbed his temple with two fingers and looked hard at Jess. “Do you know what that word means?” he said, and continued before Jessica could get a word out. “Ms. Riley, complaining about your partner is not—at all—going to convince me to change your pair. Part of the real world is working with people you don’t like. Do you think I like everyone who works at this school? No, I don’t. Now accept Emily as your partner before I decide to give you both detention.”

 

Emily gaped. She’d only had one outburst and Jess had had about a hundred. She had never before in her life gotten detention and if her record broke because of Jessica, of all people, she might actually consider checking herself into a mental hospital.

 

Jess pursed her lips a moment, as if to consider arguing more, then her body decompressed in a sigh. “Oh my god, fine.”

 

Mr. Smith, who looked like he’d been preparing for more of Jessica’s argument, seemed surprised. “Well, then. I’ll pass out your flour— I’ll pass out your  _ babies,” _ he corrected. “Treat them like you would your own children.” He looked at the students in the back row and said, “Because if you don’t then you fail this semester.”

 

Once all the flour babies had been distributed, Emily took hers and Jessica’s sack and kept it in front of her. “I don’t trust you alone with it, so I’m going to be taking it for the entire week. Just letting you know,” she said.

 

“Um, she’s my child too, Emily. I don’t want her growing up thinking her better mom doesn’t care about her,” Jess said.

 

Emily squinted. “It’s a sack of flour.”

 

“As of five minutes ago, it’s our baby.”

 

Emily rolled her eyes. “You can be the slutty, cracked out step-mom for Michael’s  _ baby, _ then.”

 

“Don’t be like that, Em,” Mike said somewhere beside Jessica.

 

Em feigned shock. “Where’s your baby, Michael? Shouldn’t you be taking care of it? I don’t want have to call child protective services on you.”

 

“I know you’re jealous, Emily, that you’re old news for Mike,” Jess said, “but you have to realize that he’s not into you anymore. Being bitchy isn’t going to change that.”

 

“I don’t care about either of you.”

 

Jess smirked. “Saying it’s the first step in believing it.”

 

Emily opened her mouth but it was the school bell that sounded. Health was the only class she had with Jessica or Mike and she was more than happy to be the first one out the door. She slung her Gucci bag over her shoulder, swiped the flour sack up from the desk, and stomped to Honors English with led feet.

 

***

 

At home, Emily sat at her glossed wooden desk and shrugged off her grey Versace jacket. She crossed her arms on the desktop and rested her head down, staring ahead at the sack of flour. It didn’t have eyes, yet it still looked like it was judging her. She turned it in the other direction and closed her eyes. She’d only closed her eyes for a minute before her phone buzzed. Emily groaned and looked at her lit phone screen.

 

The number wasn’t attached to a contact in her phone, but she still recognized the phone number.

 

**411-9108** : _ if you don’t give me custody tomorrow i’ll accidentally spill all the flour on the floor in class ;) _

 

It was seven days, Emily reminded herself. Seven days and she’d never have to willingly speak to Jessica again. She could handle seven days.

**Author's Note:**

> there's gonna be 1 chapter for every day they're stuck doing this hell project.... so expect 6 more chapters i guess
> 
>  
> 
> anyway.... feedback is appreciated :)))) thanks for reading.. and if you just skipped to the end notes then thanks for reading this sentence.. thanks..
> 
>  
> 
> you can find me on tumblr @ miraforrrester.tumblr.com


End file.
